Au pairs - cheap, convenient but be prepared to share
An au pair is usually a female foreign student
who comes to the UK to learn English by living
with a family and helping care for the children at
the same time as studying.
An au pair may well not have any childcare
qualifications, and the amount of experience in
childcare than she has can vary considerably. She
will require her own private room in your house,
her daily board, and some pocket money each week
(about £35 per week). Because of problems with Au
pairs being taken advantage of in the past, the
Home Office now regulates the hours they can be
expected to work in a day, which is limited to
five, and she must be allowed two days free in a
week. An 'Au Pair Plus' is an au pair employed on
a slightly different arrangement and can work for
longer hours per day.
You can expect an au pair to do some light
housework as well as helping look after your
children and doing some babysitting.
Some au pair agencies offer a vetting service, and
may include thorough police check and a careful
reference check in this. But if you are using an
agency then do check how they vet the au pairs on
their books.
Pros
- An au pair is a rather economical option
as her board and lodging forms part payment and
she only receives pocket money from you
- An au pair can help with some light
housework (but note that she doesn't take on
responsibility for all the children's needs in the
way a nanny does
)
- An au pair can often babysit in the
evenings (and are already familiar to your
children)
- As the au pair lives in you may not need
to take your children anywhere in the morning an
pick them up
Cons
- You will need to give an au pair her own
private room and be prepared to share your house
with somneone else
- An au pair may well have no childcare
qualifications and her experience in caring for
children may be limited
- An au pair is usually quite young (17 -
27), which you might not feel comfortable with
- Both previous points mean that an Au pair
isn't suitable to care for a very young baby
- An au pair may not speak very good
English, so you may have some communication
problems
- An au pair may suffer from homesickness
and there may be other problems relating to being
a long way from home for the first time
- You will need to set out clear
groundrules for things such as how you need /
expect her to help, how you communicate any
problems to each other, visits from boyfriends,
and use of the telephone.
Finding an
au pair
You may be able to find an au pair through
recommendations from friends and other parents,
but otherwise the easiest way to find someone is
through an au pair agency, which must be licensed
by the government. They do, however, offer varying
services, as well as requiring different fees, so
do check out what their minimum requirements are
for the au pairs on their books, as well as what
checks they carry out.
Return to our guide to childcare.
